that is out of reach.  Then see the commotion!  Watch the alteration then!  Today they say, when they trouble to think of us at all, ’Come and visit us; our ways are good; we will not hurt you; come along,’ as the children call to a kitten in the street.  Then they will say, ’We have this and that to offer.  We desire your good society.  Will you admit us if we bring our gifts?’ That will be another story, but it will take time.”

“More than time,” Tess answered.  “Genius.”

“I have genius.  That is why I know too much to declare war on the priests.  I shall have a proper wedding, and priests shall officiate, I despising them and they aware of it.  That will be their first defeat.  They shall come to my marriage as dogs come to their mistress when she calls—­ and be whipped away again if they fawn too eagerly!  They will not dare refuse to come, because then war would be joined, and I might prove to people how unnecessary priests are.  But they are more difficult to deal with than the English.  A fat hypocrite like Jinendra’s high priest is like a carp to be caught with a worm, or an ass to be beaten with a stick; but there are others—­true ascetics—­lusting for influence more than a bellyful, caring nothing for the outside of the power if they hold the nut—­ nothing for the petals, if they hold the seed.  Those men are not easy.  For the present I shall seem to play into their hands, but they know that I despise them!”

So great preparations were made for a royal wedding.  And when Samson heard that Yasmini was to be Utirupa’s bride he was sufficiently disgusted, even to satisfy Yasmini, who was no admirer of his.  Sita Ram’s account of Samson’s rage, as he explained the circumstance to Willoughby de Wing, was almost epic.

“Damn the woman!  And damn him!  She’s known for a trouble-maker.  Simla will be asking me why on earth I permitted it.  They’ll want to know why I didn’t caution Utirupa and warn him against that princess in particular.  She’s going to parade through the streets under my very nose and in flat defiance of our government, just at the very time when I’ve gone on record as sponsor for Utirupa.  I’ve assured them he wouldn’t do an ill-advised thing, and I specifically undertook to see that he married wisely.  But it was too early yet to speak to him about it.  And here he springs this offense on me!  It’s too bad—­too bad!”

“You’ll be all right with Simla,” said Willoughby de Wing.  “Dig up the treasure and they’ll recommend you for the K. C. B., with the pick of all the jobs going!”

“They don’t give K. C. B.’s to men in my trade,” Samson answered rather gloomily.  “They reserve them for you professional butchers.”